FORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACES IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF POSTMODERNISM

Abstract

The article deals with the most characteristic features of postmodernism in architecture and in the formation of urban spaces. Postmodernism in architecture was involved as a solution that would combine the rationality and feasibility of modernism with artistic and design solutions. However, in the postmodern era, the urban environment is gradually losing its historical memory, its importance as an anthropological category and as a place of identity identification.
 Urban centers are turning into purely commercial theme parks for tourists. Postmodern space is an urban structure formed by signs that meet the demands of society. The Postmodern City Image is a conglomerate of ideas and images built with the help of visual personality memory.
 Rem Koolhaas calls this phenomenon a «Junkspace», built as a conglomeration of ideas, concepts and dreams. This space is designed to please people thanks to whimsical and exaggerated elements: neon, casinos and buildings that combine architectural elements of any age with the intention to create a new architectural style.
 Las Vegas is a hypertrophied example of a postmodern city. Its urban landscape leaves facades and walls aside, replacing them with signs and symbols. Such a symbolic place becomes timeless, unrealistic and transit, not intended for everyday life. Space and time in such a city lose their essence. Urban space brings together different elements from other historical, artistic and cultural eras to interpret them as reflecting modernity. The value of images copied from historical reality becomes more important than reality itself. Humanity regards this unreal world as an idealized model of society, parallel to the one that actually exists, more attractive and interesting. Thus, the very essence of the architecture, the meaning of which is replaced by temporary advertising symbols, is lost.